A while after reviewing this bean I was contacted by Major Cook's son, who told me more about its origins. Major Cook was based in Albert, Somme (northern France) from 1952 to 1971, where he was superintendant for the British war cemeteries across the Somme area, and gardened on a bombed out factory floor. He had originally trained at Kew in 1939 and when the war broke out his first job was to teach people to grow their own food. During his years with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission his right-hand man was Harold "Lucky" Luxton, a WW1 veteran who had survived having four machine-gun bullets in his chest, two of which couldn't be removed as they were too close to his heart - so they stayed in him for his remaining 60 years or so. Major Cook was a keen experimental horticulturalist whose other credits include the "Golden" Leylandii, which he discovered as a natural hybrid growing in one of the cemeteries. He was also from a line of garden innovators; his grandfather was Alderman F. Vokes of Southampton who won over 1100 horticultural prizes, and his uncle Major H. V. Vokes was the first horticultural officer for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission when the cemeteries began to be formalised in 1920. The origin of Major Cook's Bean very possibly goes back to Alderman Vokes.
In its dried seed form, Major Cook's Bean is a pretty bean, though not hugely unusual in appearance. It's somewhat oval, satin-smooth, very slightly below average size, and cream-tan coloured with purple-maroon flecks. Most borlotti type beans have this appearance, with minor variations. So to look at the seed itself, you wouldn't know it was any different from several other varieties. Though it does have a slightly translucent glazed appearance, rather like Victorian porcelain. It also displays the common phenomenon which I call "day for night", where the colours are occasionally reversed (tan flecks on a purple bean). This is part of the bean's natural variability and should not be 'rogued out'.
The plants are climbers, so I grew mine up the bog-standard bamboo wigwam (actually two wigwams with a bar joining them together at the top). But for the first few weeks they didn't climb. The growth remained bushy and compact with no obvious leader shoots and I started to wonder if they'd been mislabelled. But then they suddenly decided to go for it, and went whizzing up the poles with such vigour they were soon flailing beyond the tops. They also filled out with leaves pretty quickly, forming a solid wall of beanery.
The leaves are fairly large, with pronounced stipules. It's not a pretty or genteel plant in this respect ... the leaves are quite coarse and primitive-looking and rough to the touch. The surface of the leaf is lightly blistered. French beans normally produce their leaves in groups of three, but Major Cook's frequently produces composites with four or five leaves. The flowers are mauve and quite pretty ... fairly average for a french bean. |